


Trouble

by Yoko_Fujioka



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Genderbend, also general overwhelming/death threats, and is a current contender for literal coolest mom ever, aomine will beat up anyone for her girlfriend, cis switch, midorima hates it with all her soul, please beware of the antagonist making a rape joke, protect the bae squad, soooo much sweet omfg, takamama is totally aware of her daughter's relationship, takao and kise are like sisters from another mister, that is if she hasn't already done it herself, this probably takes place their like second or third year??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 07:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6414271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoko_Fujioka/pseuds/Yoko_Fujioka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being mugged already kind of ruins any "date" atmosphere that might have remained, but for it to escalate into Takao's life being at risk, and all for the sake of some gang's dying reputation...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Heeeeyyyy!! Wow I am really pushing this "it still counts as March's entry", huh?? *collapses on the floor* I am seriously starting to think the earlier in the month I start/post something, the more I do with the rest of my time! In November I wrote one fic, two in December, one in January, and then THREE in February...note how every time I did only one fic, it was at the very end of the month. LOLOL.
> 
> Nooo real excuse for this one, it's another previously started story, the first one I ever wrote for KnB, in fact!! Figures I start with GL, huh. Anyway this was started in January of 2014, and although I tried to edit the beginning, it might still have some semblances of shallow/initial character analysis, so def leave your thoughts in the comments about how far off I am.

It was a blustery winter day in Tokyo, the dirty snow piling beside the curbs and people weaving between each other like fish, burrowing their faces further into their jackets and scarves to retain at least some heat. Amongst the surprisingly large crowd two girls walked side by side, the taller one standing out like a burst of spring with green hair resembling a sudden patch of new grass in the snowbanks. Next to her, a much shorter girl with black hair had an smile that nearly shone, not even minding that the other didn’t seem to be paying attention to what she was saying. 

Suddenly a cutting wind blew past both girls, Midorima Shinobu gritting her teeth irritably but subtly borrowed her hands further into her ginormous jacket rather than showing it on her face. Takao Kazuha, unfortunately, wasn’t quite so well dressed so she squeaked in shock as the wind seemed to slice right through her, wrapping her arms around herself as if that would stop the blades. 

“I told you that you were under-dressed, idiot” Shinobu spoke for the first time, eyebrows furrowed in annoyance as she looked the girl over. Whereas she had made sure to carefully pay attention to the weather report before Oha-Asa and dress appropriately in several layers of long sleeves, warm pants and a knee-length overcoat, it seems like the other girl hadn’t even bothered to look out her window that morning. A light sweater topped with a decorative vest, thin leggings and a skirt that barely reached her knees, it was her own fault if she was freezing!

“Awwww, c’mon Shin-chan don’t be such a tsun-tsun, I was just trying to look super cute for our date today~!” The darker-haired girl replied much too casually for her liking, and if she had been drinking anything she probably would have spit it right back out. Coughing into her hand to cover her embarrassed sputtering, Shinobu quickened her pace a bit to escape the other girl’s cat-like smirk. Damn bastard, looking so smug all the time…

“Takao-chan! Midorimacchi! Long time no see!!” An overly cheerful, high pitched voice squealed happily, Kazuha barely getting any warning before she found the taller blonde girl nearly draping herself over her back, humming gleefully about how long it had been since they had seen each other. 

“Ah, Ryō-chan! It's been a while!” Kazuha chirped back, subtly pushing the heavier girl off her before the two launched into a loud, overly cheerful conversation about fashion, basketball and nearly everything else under the sun. In the background, Shinobu sighed unhappily and pinched her index finger and thumb to her brow. Kazuha she could deal with, the shorter girl might be overly talkative and a bad joker, but she was still pleasant company that Shinobu had become more and more used to being around. Kise Ryōko, on the other hand… 

She was bad enough on her own without Kuroko Tetsumi to keep her attention, and it was even worse when she and Kazuha got together. They had nearly talked Shinobu’s ear off the last time the three of them had been together, and that had only been a five-minute conversation about some magazine the both of them had happened to see! 

It really had been quite a while since any of them were free, so now they had even more stuff to catch up on, making Shinobu’s head throb just thinking about the headache she was going to get later. 

“Yo, Midorima” A gruff voice greeted, and the greenette had to suppress the urge to fall on her hands and knees in despair. Just her luck, of course Aomine Dai would have to be there, too. 

“Takao, we’re leaving” she snapped authoritatively, the smaller girl barely looking up in time to see her girlfriend stomping away, voicing her protests but still quickly trailing behind her. 

. . . But of course despite Shinobu’s attempts to escape, Ryōko followed her and whined "Midorimacchi, how mean!" anyway, so she eventually just gave in, trying to block out the enthusiastic squeals behind her as Kazuha and Ryōko poured over something on their smart phones. Beside her, Dai looked equally bored but was at least smart enough to not initiate an conversation, green eyebrow twitching as she tried oh-so-hard not to make a scene. 

Seeing a familiar bridge in front of them, Shinobu felt her shoulders go slack with relief. Her house wasn’t too far from here, and although Kazuha’s house wasn’t too far beyond that, she honestly didn’t care if she and Ryōko doubled back to go shopping just as long as they left her alone. No amount of begging or puppy dog eyes on Kazuha’s part was going to change her mind about that. 

“My my, what have we here? Quite the group of cuties, isn’t it?” A slimy voice cooed. 

“Don’t worry sweeties, just hand over your money and we won’t hurt you…unless you like that sort of thing” A second voice followed soon after the first man’s. This one obviously belonged to a male as well, but he couldn’t even manage to sound the least bit attractive, whereas his companion could have at been a sleazy cars salesman in the best of cases. 

Just when Shinobu thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse… _‘I guess this is a good reason to keep Dai around, though’ _the greenette thought to herself. She even smiled inwardly when she imagined what the dark-blue haired girl was going to do to those punks for being so “fresh” with her, even more so when one of the punks reached out and grabbed Ryōko by the arm, licking his lips with an audible slurping sound.__

“You motherfuckers-” Dai began, dark eyes slitting dangerously and her fists swinging wildly at her side as she power walked to the delinquent still holding Ryōko.

“Ahhhhhh, Aominecchi, stop! I thought you promised Momoicchi you weren’t going get into anymore fights!!” The blonde girl protested, easily wrenching out of the man’s grasp (she looked like a petite princess but was really quite strong in reality, the wonders of basketball) and running in front of Dai instead, hands in front of the taller girl’s chest as if attempting to calm a wild beast.

“Fuck Satoshi, like I ever listen to him anyway!”

“Aoomiiinechiiiiiiiii! Let’s just go!!”

“Oh wow lookie here aniki, this one’s actually pretty cute, too!” The voice of the other punk yelled over the couple’s bickering, making the other three girls freeze. Slowly looking behind them, they found the delinquent with the bad blonde dye job and way too many piercings in his face now had an arm encircling Kazuha’s neck, making the girl struggle vainly to get him off without choking herself. 

After pretending like she was trying to get past a screen with no luck, Kazuha finally just gave up and, heaving a sigh, bent down and bit the guy’s arm hard enough to draw blood. 

“Ow, motherfucking bitch!” He yelled out angrily as expected, and Kazuha raced out the second he lifted his arm from around her neck in order to cradle it. He obviously wasn’t the type to just give up, however, and grabbed her ponytail instead, even his friend’s eyes widening when he threw her down with a sweep of his arm, the girl screaming out in pain as the side of her head hit the concrete with a heavy **“thunk”**.

Now assured that she wasn’t trying to struggle anymore, the blonde punk picked her up by the back of her elbow and held her out at arm’s reach over the bridge railing by her neck. 

“Oi, dude, don’t you think that’s going a bit fa-” his brunette friend actually attempted to argue with him, although he was shut up with a glare. Meanwhile, the blonde punk’s lip curved upwards in a smirk as he watched the girl at his fingertips go almost completely limp, seeming to understand that any movement on her part was likely to cause her to be dropped into the river below. 

Or rather it just seemed like she had accepted her fate, because Shinobu noted that blue eyes were still darting around furiously, looking for escape routes, weak spots, anything, just the same as she would have done if this were a pinch in-game. 

Even though the man had no clue about her hawk eye, however, he still seemed to catch on quickly that their target was being a little too accepting of her fate all of the sudden to not have something up her sleeve. 

“Now, now, girly, you better not get any bright ideas or I really will throw you over! I hear the water’s real cold this time of year; it’s too bad the ice doesn’t look to be very strong, now does it? Maybe I’ll just let you try it out and see for yourself, though…” The man teased, holding the girl out slightly further over the ledge so that she really did freeze in fear, eyes looking at the man in desperation, testing if he would really do it or not. He looked way too serious about this for a simple mugger.

“I think at this point any money you have won’t be enough for all the trouble I’ve had to go through, so lets’ say one of you ladies go to an alley with me for a nice ‘date night’!” He actually laughed gleefully at that, like the idea of taking a woman against her will in exchange for a friend’s life was a situation he’d been looking forward to trying out.

“Kuranosuke, you’ve gone too far now!” The brunette thug warned in a low growl, a little apprehensive himself as he watched the scene unfold. 

“You see Aniki, this is why everyone is leaving the gang! Why we're considered bottom of the bucket, not even worth being afraid of! We’re getting way too soft, we have to prove that we’re not to be messed with, and this little bitch is a perfect chance to prove that!” The blonde thug, Kuranosuke, sneered back as he loosened his fingers enough for Kazuha to begin to slip, although he didn’t seem to plan to let her fall just yet. 

“That’s it, I’ll take on both you motherfuckers!” Dai finally announced after a few seconds of silence, the two punks staring each other down like cowboys in an old western until the tall bluenette caught their attention. Sizing her up, the leader seemed to realize that the girl would put up a good fight at least, and the internal battle he was waging on whether it was worth backing up his dumb underling or not was obvious on his face. 

Suddenly the whole world seemed to go in slow motion. On the sidelines, five onlookers watched in differing degrees of shock as Kuranosuke let go of Kazuha as easily as he probably dropped his trash on the street, seemingly unaware of the absolute panic in the girl’s eyes that took no more than half a second to register. Quickly reaching up, her fingers strummed the air, everything stretching as far as it could in a desperate attempt to grab the railing. She wasn’t far below the bridge, it was just too out of the way for her arms to reach, and so she visibly began to panic and think of every single way this could go wrong. 

If the ice was too thin, it might break and send her flailing into the water, causing her to either drown or get a severe case of hypothermia. If the ice was too thick, however….she could get anything from a concussion to a smashed head! She could die!!

 _Now panicking, Kazuha finally found her voice. But, instead of calling for her mother, asking for help, saying something witty (how she wished she could, in this sort of situation) or even just bemoaning her bad luck and how she should have done better things with her life, she just screamed out the first thing that came to mind._

 

 **“SHIN-CHAN!!!!”** was the absolutely heart-wrenching cry that left the younger girl as she continued to plummet down towards the unforgiving ice. To the surprise of everyone there, her screams were quickly answered with a loud cry of her given name in return, Shinobu literally pushing Kuranosuke out of her way as she dashed towards the edge of the bridge like a madwoman.

Stretching her body so far over the ledge of the bridge that she thought she heard her back crack, Shinobu ignored her body’s protests and got on her very tippy-toes, reaching farther and farther below the edge until, finally, she managed to grab the ravenette’s loose, sweaty hand. She had been expecting one of the slightly younger girl’s overly loud decorations of love upon being rescued, but the silence that rang harshly in the ear was all the more frightening. With the limp way the girl was hanging and her general body language, she seemed to have only passed out, but Shinobu just wanted her on solid ground as soon as possible. 

In the background the others could be heard trying to get to her side and help Kazuha up, but her vision was entirely tunneled on the swinging girl, startling when she suddenly showed signs of rousing. 

“Kazuha! Kazuha, listen to me and calm down!” She yelled when the younger began panicking as soon as she regained consciousness. It took a couple more yells but Kazuha finally seemed to realize she was safe, although she might not be for long with how Shinobu’s shoulders were burning.

Of course her upper arm strength was amazing, but the gravity pulling Kazuha down intensified with all her struggling and wiggling, and their sweaty hands were starting to slip as well. So first she needed Kazuha to grab onto her forearm for better grip, and then if the others would just help her instead of yipping at the punks, they could have her safe and sound in no time. 

“Ahahaha sorry Shin-chan…I really do rely on you too much, don’t I?” Kazuha’s voice made her look back down just as she was just about to yell at the other girls to get their acts together, green eyes widening when she saw the regretful smile on the ravenette’s face.

“I’ll be okay” Kazuha continued, soothing, before she let go of her hand. It was a cliché, surely someone else was screaming, too, but Shinobu didn’t even realize the ringing in her ears was hers, watching with wide, panicked eyes. Her fingers reached and tried to grasp onto anything, anything at all, but it was too late, Kazuha was quickly dropping down…

 

Landing just a few feet from where Shinobu had been stretching to hold her weight, settling on her feet only to wobble a little and crouch down to balance herself with her hands. 

“Eh”

Shinobu’s face was blank with absolute shock, staring down at Kazuha like she couldn’t believe how much she had panicked for nothing. 

“Shin-chan, V!!” Kazuha yelled suddenly, making the peace sign level with her up-tilted head, grinning cheekily. All those theatrics…and she had probably known, too! Shinobu was too ladylike to be “pissed” over such a thing, but she wasn’t very happy with the other girl. 

Still she hovered worriedly, watching Kazuha “skate” towards the riverbank with pinched eyebrows, she was neither starting any fake-cheerful conversations to hide her worry or making showy jumps or twirls like everything was okay. In a way Shinobu was glad she was so shaken that she wasn’t wearing the usual masks, and was actually putting her own well-being first.

Shinobu shadowed her almost step for step, side by side along the bridge, eyes glued exclusively on the dark head. As she got towards land Kazuha started getting overconfident, and that…

 

Was exactly when the ice suddenly broke out from under her.

Only one leg fell into the freezing water, the other trying to catch itself in a snowbank, although unfortunately that one slid on the too-packed surface, and she fell face-first into the cold fluff.

Ryōko and Dai had already been walking ahead of Shinobu, but at the panicked shriek of surprise the ravenette made, they hurried even further, sliding down the slightly raised hill. 

Since this was Kazuha she popped right back up, of course, although Shinobu noticed that the leg that had fallen into the water was definitely a lot slower coming up than the arms that pushed her from the sparkling snow. 

“Kazuha! Are you okay?” Ryōko asked as the front two approached her, the point guard nodding a little too ardently, obviously dazed. “It’s okay, it’s okay” the blonde soothed, hands pressing soft circles to the shorter girl’s shoulders and elbows.

Behind Ryōko, Dai just stood there awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. Kazuha was perceptive, though, so she definitely picked up the _‘sorry for not stopping those assholes sooner’_ message, as she gave the bluenette a soft smile and an _‘it’s okay’_ nod.

“There’s no helping it, I’ll be walking you home to make sure you don’t get into any more trouble” Shinobu announced as she finally caught up with them, like it was already a hassle for her. In the background Kazuha snorted with laughter, the surprised noise so gross and unladylike Shinobu still couldn’t believe she found it unbelievably cute.

“My my, what a gentlelady!” Kazuha mocked, even pretending to swoon, but the underlying _‘I thought walking me home was what you were doing before, Miss Smooth.’_ made Shinobu grit her teeth. 

They continued on like this while walking back up to the bridge, which had made Shinobu notice something else. Kazuha usually used the hawk eye to her advantage and planned every action several steps ahead, but she had been so dazed after she fell that she just walked in a random direction to get off the ice. It was a 50/50 chance, and she just so happened to walk in the opposite direction of her house, not that it was a lot of extra walking, but her knees were already knocking together, so Shinobu wanted to get her back home and swathed in as many blankets as she could find, and soon.

“Aneki!” a voice yelled after they had returned to the sidewalk, the two women who didn’t immediately recognize the voice looking up ahead to find a miniature version with the tell-tale blue eyes and m-shaped bangs running up to them.

“Yo, Michio! What’s up, I thought you told mom you were staying at Yuu’s house?” Kazuha replied casually, posture relaxing as she stuck one hand in her vest pocket and the other flipped up in perfect beat with her “yo”.

“Yea, but we got bored so we’re gonna go to the arcade or something” Her brother replied, likely not even realizing he was mirroring her posture and mannerisms, as he seemed to be studying her very closely for something. Still he swiveled his head behind him, and the four of them followed his gesture to look at a group of four sixth graders huddled in a circle, looking at them from time to time and laughing amongst themselves.

“Do you have your cellphone with you? You memorized 119 already, right?” Both were solid pieces of advice from a worried elder sister, but it was obvious she was teasing him well before she bent over to ruffle his “artfully messy” hair, making him groan.

“Quit it, aneki, you’re embarrassin’ me!!” Michio complained, desperately reaching above his head to try and pry her hands off.

“C’mon, Mich, what d’ya’think big sisters are for?” Kazuha snickered as she watched him finally free himself and fix his hair. 

“Borrowing video games from, that’s the only use I can think of.” Michio quipped back sharply, combing his hair with his fingertips in order to look at his sister from under his bangs with what can only be described as pride. His friends _“ooo”ed_ in the background. 

“Don’t worry Mich, someday you’ll have a big enough allowance to buy nice things yourself!” She answered back in a heartbeat, one of the boys making a sound like he was physically wounded while her own brother just looked annoyed. There it was again, that hyper-aware look that didn’t fit the rest of him at all.

“Anyway, aneki, how the fuck did you get soaking wet?” He attempted to change the subject.

“Michio, what has mom told you about fucking swearing?” Kazuha chuckled, squatting down to flick him on the forehead before hopping back to standing off the backs of her calves. 

“Right, and you’re a _prime fucking example_. Seriously, though!” Michio mumbled the first part loud enough for everyone to be able to tell what the words were, but he flipped right back to his normal, brash voice for the next sentence. 

For a moment Kazuha looked serious, but it was quickly replaced with an even more fake aura as she clenched her right hand into a light fist and bonked herself on the side of her head, sticking her tongue out when it made contact.

“Ahaha, about that~ I accidentally got caught next to a truck driving into a puddle again~~” She laughed lightly, the gap between the two parts just small enough that it didn’t seem super obvious she had just made the story up. 

“Again? Seriously, aneki, being a ditz is one thing, but as your younger brother I’m seriously starting to worry about you! Who’s even going to believe you’re the eldest child like this?!” Suddenly Michio was the one scolding her, and she dipped her head apologetically, seeming sincere. 

“Noooot~ to worry though, I’m going home for the day so it’ll be fine!” Kazuha assured him, waving her hand back and forth in front of her face. Michio didn’t seem impressed, that is until he realized that Shinobu was there with her, although he didn’t know the other two.

“Shin-nee-sama, thank you so much for always looking after my stupid elder sister, we really appreciate it.” He said in an even, serious voice, suddenly switching to entirely more formal language as he folded his hands in front of his lap and bowed to her at the proper angle. 

“A-ah, no, it’s the least I can do.” Shinobu replied, stuttering a little bit from how unexpected it was as she offered back a smaller bow. He smiled sweetly at her but then turned right around, pulled his lower eyelid down and stuck his tongue out at his actual sister.

“Hey you brat, what did she do to deserve that much respect, huh?! And stop bad talkin’ me to my friends!!” She yelled angrily, which she probably would have done even if not for that last little spectacle. It made a good scene for the kids to all run off laughing to, some of them looking back at Kazuha to laugh further when they saw her punching her fists in the air angrily.

“Shin-nee-chan is mor’of a lady than you’ll ever be!!” Michio declared with a final laugh and a wave before running faster across the rest of the bridge without looking back.

“You take that back!!” Kazuha yelled back long after they could hear her, putting more force into the fist waving for extra emphasis. When she lowered her arms again it came with a big sigh, looking over at Shinobu with a worn expression.

“Why can’t I have a cute and obedient little brother like you, hu-ACHOO!!” Kazuha interrupted herself with a sneeze that made her accidentally bite her tongue with the suddenness of it, an old lady nearby jumping at the sudden loud noise before hobbling away when caught staring incredulously. 

“Here” Ryoko giggled as she handed her a handkerchief from her coat pocket, Kazuha trying to thank her as she took it although it was kind of hard to understand what she was saying.

“Owh, oi heate vwen oi to dhat” Kazuha whined, holding her stinging tongue out of her mouth after wiping her nose. {“Ow, I hate when I do that”}

“Okay Takao-chan, you go home and take good care of yourself, okay?” Ryōko suddenly declared, pulling a very confused Kazuha into a hug. 

“Ryō-chan?” The ravenette asked, visibly confused. The blonde just laughed, expression dark.

“Since Dai-chan got a good long look at both of those guy's faces, I was thinking we should go to the police station back in town!” She explained, Kazuha’s face relaxing when she realized what the other girl was saying.

“Would you really do that for me? Thank you Ryō-chan, Dai-kun!” She lit up as she looked between them, and Dai smiled back, but not as much as Ryōko. It was good to see that threatening expression gone, Ryōko really was terrifying when she was serious. 

“I’ll call you later, okay?” Kazuha yelled, a hand cupping the side of her mouth as the other two girls walked in the other direction, Ryōko turning around to flash her a thumbs up before turning back to start a conversation with Dai.

Hearing Kazuha let out another sneeze as they turned back towards their own destination, Midorima carefully took her arms out of her sleeves and rolled the jacket off her back before loosely laying it over the smaller girl’s shoulders. Even though Kazuha had seen her take it off, had definitely been paying attention, she looked over her shoulder at the girl walking behind her with an expression of absolute adoration. 

Shinobu coughed into her hand, but there was no mistaking the matching look on her face, either.

 

Thankfully the quiet streets near the Takao residence were emptier than usual, so there were no further incidences on the way to their destination.

“Even though much didn’t happen until the end there, thanks so much for taking me out today, Shin-chan.” Kazuha confessed once they were past the front gate and standing right in front of her door. The ravenette was rolling her heels slightly like she really wanted to stretch up and give Shinobu a kiss, and the greenette would have usually wanted to give her some parting gift, but that wasn’t in her plans today.

Instead, she waited until Kazuha pouted slightly but turned into the open doorway to sort of force her way into the remaining space, the polite “Excuse the intrusion” falling unto deaf ears as Kazuha stared at her in complete shock.

“Kazu, is that yo--Oh, Shinobu-chan! Welcome, come in, come in! I thought you girls were going out, what brings you over today?” Takao’s mother, upon hearing the front door, peeked her head into the main hallway from the living room, first door to the right. Upon seeing her green-haired second daughter her already warm smile intensified, opening the door all the way and pulling the girl into a hug she still didn’t quite know how to reciprocate, Kazuha snickering quietly in the background.

“So?” Mrs. Takao reiterated, reminding Shinobu that it was unusual for her to come over for something other than homework. 

“We had fun, but I thought it might be better to stay inside today” Shinobu concluded, blushing furiously when she saw the ecstatic expression on her future-mother-in-law’s face. That didn’t even begin to describe the joy on Kazuha’s face when she finally dared a peek over, her smile and even her skin seemingly to glow with happiness.

Rather, Shinobu didn’t know if she was thrilled not to be left alone with her thoughts, or had just always thought sitting on the couch watching movies was a super romantic idea, but she liked her chances either way.

“Oh, Kazu-chan, you’re soaked to the bone! What happened?” Her mother, over her initial upbeat greeting, was sharp as a knife and quickly noticed her daughter’s half-dried but sagging hair and clothes, Kazuha herself suddenly gripping the handkerchief in her hand as if she had forgotten.

Lying to her brother and making things seem not as bad was one thing, but her mother…both women were surprised when Kazuha just strongly shook her head no, but Mrs. Takao didn’t press the issue any further, smiling kindly and rubbing her hands up and down her daughter’s arms soothingly. 

“I’ll go heat up a bath real quick, alright? And Shinobu-chan, it’s so cold outside, why don’t you hop in there with her?” She proposed, looking a little too happy with her idea and both girls fish-out-of-water reactions. 

“B-but—“ Shinobu tried to begin, but Mrs. Takao just tutted her into silence.

“Just don’t do anything I can hear over my soaps, alright?” She added with a saucy wink, heading upstairs with the other two following her after they got over the initial shock. 

 

Thankfully Shinobu had left clothes here before, and despite Mrs. Takao’s assumption that they were going to dirty her bathtub, they just had a very long, relaxing unwind. 

“I can wash my own hair, Shin-chan” Kazuha argued, already leaning into the greenette’s talented touch as she said that. Shinobu smiled despite herself, rubbing small, comforting circles into the smaller girl’s scalp and watching happily as she finally unwound and became less tense, even massaging her back when she volunteered to help wash where the ravenette had trouble reaching. 

Kazuha returned the favor as well, and although there was a small incident where some shampoo got into Shinobu’s eyes, everything else went fine. From there they crunched into the bathtub together, back to chest, and sat there, talking about everything mundane.

They sat there until their wrinkles had wrinkles and they were starting to get light-headed, grabbing the hair dryer and combing through each other’s strands as they led warm, comforting heat over their heads and necks. Kazuha even started falling asleep during hers, although heat and having her hair brushed always seemed to do that, so Shinobu didn’t wake her up until she was done, leading the still dozy girl down the stairs and back to the living room where her mother had left them a huge pile of blankets, pillows, and full access to the TV. 

One more time Mrs. Takao came in during the commercial break of some show Shinobu didn’t think either of them were paying attention to and asked Kazuha if she wanted to talk about what happened. When her daughter vehemently shook her head no this time and buried her face into the crook of Shinobu’s neck, Mrs. Takao just smiled wistfully, curling a finger under Kazuha’s chin to kiss her forehead.

“Shinobu-chan, would you like a cup of cocoa?” The older woman asked, looking back at the girl who slowly nodded, in something of a perfect mood for a warm and sweet drink at the moment. 

“Marshmallows” Kazuha mumbled without moving her mouth from Shinobu’s collarbone, making her mother laugh but brush a chunk of hair behind her daughter's ear, returning no more than five minutes later with two matching mugs, one with no marshmallows and one with white entirely covering the surface.

Michio returned that evening and made gagging sounds when he found them still on the couch, but Kazuha didn’t say anything this time, just threw a pillow which he easily caught and threw back before stomping into the kitchen mumbling about his gross lovey-dovey sister. 

Mrs. Takao was persuasive as always and Shinobu ended up staying both for dinner and the night, not that she could say she regretted such a loud, lively atmosphere at the table for once.

Preemptively fearing that Kazuha might have nightmares about what happened, Shinobu turned down the futon, cuddling up as a big spoon instead, the small space pressing them close as she fell into an easy sleep with the help, warmth and vibrations of the living, breathing person beside her.

It was so amazing, to be able to even silently say “this person is my girlfriend, I’m sleeping in the same bed as her, will take care of her as best I can, and I love her with all I have.” 

The Takao house really just had an amazing atmosphere like that, and that night she dreamed about a world where her entire life could be that fantastic.

**Author's Note:**

> LOL honestly is anyone surprised this is the direction I went with for the end?? At first I only planned the near-death-experience, but then I really wanted a scene of Kazu downplaying what happened in front of everyone for the sake of her younger sibling so that was added. But then I was like you gotta have a resolution and lots of fluff?? So LOL I didn't sleep in order to have this posted on the 31st. Life choices. I'm so glad I made them. (And I'm an adult!)
> 
> BTW Kazuha's little brother in this story, Michio, has a name that means "man on a good path", it has a modern sound?? I hope?? Anyway, I know less about the relevance of this genderbend name, but I feel like parents who like the sound of "Kazunari" would choose one like this?? No but he really is the responsible one for the most part, I really love that dynamic of the "useless" elder sister LOLOL. So I thought this name fit, he has very good grades for an elementary school-er (and a cheeky one at that) and a bright future of good schools and good jobs ahead of him! 
> 
> My favorite quote from my mom is "stop fucking swearing, you're a goddamn lady like I raised you to be" *clasps her hands over her heart and sighs*
> 
> Okay, so this is like a last minute edit: Actual story of my life though, I waited until the last couple of hours to write this, then got on a wonderful writing stream and managed to write a whole bunch of really gorgeous prose. Then what?? MS WORD CRASHED AND I LOSE THE WORK I DID THAT. ENTIRE. DAY. *collapses into the earth* so some parts might seem to go downhill, I managed to gather up momentum again but it was rocky, and so, sososo depressing to have to write all of that again.
> 
> Speaking of all that, I hit the 5k mark! On a oneshot!!! *huge sparkly eyes* Okay but this is majorly fucking amazing for me, I hope it doesn't feel like it drags or has unnecessary parts?? 
> 
> LOL but this entire idea was built off the Another OVA in which dangerous distances weren't really all that threatening, it turns out! XDD The punks and the rest of it was built around that strange event~ 
> 
> Anyway I always say it but it's always true: comments are my air! LOL no, joking, but I went through a lot of sweat, tears, and couple envy writing this, so any words at all would be aaamAAAAAZZIIIIIINGGG!! ✧٩(•́⌄•́๑)و ✧


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